"Said Iahvah, Thine oppression shall be for good; I will make the foe thy suppliant in time of evil and in time of distress. Can one break iron, Iron from the north, and brass?" In other words, faith counsels patience, and assures the prophet that all things work together for good to them that love God. The wrongs and bitter treatment which he now endures will only enchance his triumph, when the truth of his testimony is at last confirmed by events, and they who now scoff at his message, come humbly to beseech his prayers. The closing lines refer, with grave irony, to that unflinching firmness, that inflexible resolution, which, as a messenger of God, he was called upon to maintain. He is reminded of what he had undertaken at the outset of his career, and of the Divine Word which made him "a pillar of iron and walls of brass against all the land" (i. 18). Is it possible that the pillar of iron can be broken, and the walls of brass beaten down by the present assault? There is a pause, and then the prophet vehemently pleads his own cause with Iahvah. Smarting with the sense of personal wrong, he urges that his suffering is for the Lord's own sake; that consciousness of the Divine calling has dominated his entire life, ever since his dedication to the prophetic office; and that the honour of Iahvah requires his vindication upon his heartless and hardened adversaries. "_Thou_ knowest, Iahvah! Remember me, and visit me, and avenge me on my persecutors. Take me not away in thy longsuffering; Regard my bearing of reproach for Thee. "Thy words were found, and I did eat them, And it became to me a joy and mine heart's gladness; For I was called by Thy Name, O Iahvah, God of Sabaoth! "I sate not in the gathering of the mirthful, nor rejoiced; Because of Thine hand I sate solitary, For with indignation Thou didst fill me. "Why hath my pain become perpetual, And my stroke malignant, incurable? Wilt Thou indeed become to me like a delusive stream, Like waters which are not lasting?" The pregnant expression, "_Thou_ knowest, Iahvah!" does not refer specially to anything that has been already said; but rather lays the whole case before God in a single word. The _Thou_ is emphatic; Thou, Who knowest all things, knowest my heinous wrongs: Thou knowest and seest it all, though the whole world beside be blind with passion and self-regard and sin (Ps. x. 11-14). Thou knowest how pressing is my need; therefore _Take me not away in Thy longsuffering_: sacrifice not the life of Thy servant to the claims of forbearance with his enemies and Thine. The petition shews how great was the peril in which the prophet perceived himself to stand: he believes that if God delay to strike down his adversaries, that longsuffering will be fatal to his own life.